Your Own Daily Report !

Hi Readers,

Yep, posts on successive days, this author must have time on his hands!!

Well, I sort of do have time to kill as I spend so much time at the hospital ward, and when the person you are visiting is mostly asleep, one does have to find ways to pass the time.

Today I was listening to a podcast and the person being interviewed made the comment

 "I didn't do that well today on what I was aiming for, so I'd only give myself a 'C' for today"

This got me thinking ( and also reminded me of a previous post where I spoke about where we get inspiration from) about how we rate ourselves, and also others.

As you know, I'm a teacher and throughout my career our reporting procedures have always been under scrutiny. Thankfully when I started the practice of grading students with A, B, C, D etc was not being used anymore, however we still gave these grades out for other areas such as behaviours that were matched to statements.

Much of this still goes on in different forms in many schools today.

We also have many parents still requesting grades for their children as they believe that this is a clearer way for them to understand where their child is at. For me, I just couldn't do this as I believe we have come a lot further than that. I've also been asked on many occasions things like "What position in the class is my child?". Once again, I'd never go there, but this still can cause friction when our understanding of reporting clashes with what parents understand. This is why schools spend so much time in trying to come up with the best method, but we seem to come up against criticism of some sort constantly.

And I understand where many parents are coming from, as like me, they were brought up on reports based on the A- F structure. ( and most of mine were closer to F than A !!)

Please don't think I'm having a crack at anyone here, I'm not. It's just how it is.

So, I digress (just had to squeeze that in !!)

This got me thinking. When do we stop and give ourselves a 'report' on how we are going?

Where we rate ourselves?

It would be safe to say that most of us haven't had a report since we left school, with the closest thing to it being our work evaluations, performance reviews etc.

What I'm referring to here is when do we look back upon our day/week and carefully rate our own performances? I'm not saying we should all be deciding to give ourselves an A or F, but just analysing what we do and deciding if it's one of our better efforts, just cruising, or a complete failure!

Importantly, what do we do about it !!

What I'm going to do is share by example what I'm talking about. Just more of my waffle as usual, but I don't think that the message I'm trying to get across will be as relevant unless it is backed up by reality. I think by giving real life examples it gives my post some level of credibility, but I'm also aware of the vulnerability I feel by sharing things about myself so publicly.

The books I've been reading and podcasts I've been listening to have inspired me and given me greater courage to do this, and to be open to whatever responses and reactions that are sent my way.

In particular, the Resilience Project books by Hugh Van Cuylenburg and his associated podcast "The Imperfects" have been resonating so well with me.

Neale Daniher's book is another.

I'm currently reading a book by Ant Middleton and his approach just sits perfectly with me.

Just by mixing up the same messages from different sources has, I feel, given me a more rounded understanding of what I'm talking about.

Boy, have I gone the long way around beginning this !!

What I want to do today is present an old style 'report' on how I think I've been going lately, but instead of using the traditional subjects from school days, I'll blend them with the things I do in my normal adult days at the moment.

It will pretty much be just a reflection on how I see myself at this moment, but by actually writing it down, it makes me think even more about it.

I hope that this might encourage you, my readers, to stop and reflect on your day, your interactions and the way that you carry yourself, and make your own decisions about how well you believe you are going.

Don't ask someone else to do it on your behalf, the truth might hurt !!!!

"If we don't share our stories, people will make them up"

I heard this quote on a podcast this afternoon, and I thought that it was a good way of explaining what I'm doing today on this post. You may think you know me well, but in some ways you may know diddly squat about me and have to just make up your own assessments of me. You could be right, but also way off track !

so, here goes...

Report Card - Bernard Kerrins

Maths: 

Bernard needs to remember that there are only 24 hours in a day. He tries to do too much and can get frustrated when he doesn't finish things. It has been good to see that he started recently to devote more time to learning new skills, such as internet banking, paying bills, controlling the family finances and structuring his time more equitably. He could pay more attention to looking at the time more often and go to bed earlier, and occasionally have a little sleep in rather than being up so early each day. This might help him to relax more.

Message to self: Just try and do 1-2 things well at a time, pay more attention to your sleep patterns. If things don't get finished, relax.

Home Economics:

Bernard is an adventurous cook, sometimes this can appear to be dangerous and life threatening. When cooking for others he is able to take more care with presentation, ingredients and suitable eating times. However, when on his own he tends to cut corners and do slap dash meals in a hurry that will last a few nights, rather than cooking a proper meal each night. He needs to understand that throwing all sorts of veges and spices over pasta and calling it "Pasta Surprise" can only sustain him for so long. The same with "Rice Surprise". He cannot go through life with the attitude of just throwing any ingredients he can find together in a dish and call it "......Surprise" !!! He does however break away from this habit to produce 1-2 decent meals a week. It has been good to see him staying away from fast foods and take aways, apart from the random breakouts.

Message to self: Plan your meals a bit better rather than random selections. More attention to mixing up your veges, and introduce more variety to your meals. "Surprise Meals" will never get you on MasterChef !! Baked beans do NOT go with everything, no matter how much you believe this!!

Phys Ed:

Bernard needs little encouragement in this area. It's good to see him so dedicated to maintaining his own fitness, however it can also be to his own detriment. He can tend to get fidgety if he misses a day of exercise and needs to understand the need for rest and not feeling the need to be doing something all the time. It would be good to recognise that any spare time can be seen as a time for other exploits rather than always choosing something active. As his body ages and his ailments continue, it would be ideal for him to start choosing more moderate exercise rather than trying to do what he did 20 years ago. Now if only we could somehow get him to follow this advice !!!!

Message to self:  Be realistic about what your body can actually do. Your ambition too often exceeds your ability. I know you'd love to be able to run again, but that's not going to happen. Accept it.

English:

Bernard can at times have a potty mouth, mumbling or swearing under his breath!!🤬

This is especially so when just little things annoy him. He lets these little things get the better of him at times. He can also be lazy with his speech, dropping the ends of words and speaking too casually for certain situations.

It has been pleasing to see him become so interested in his writing, as throughout his life he has always thought he was very weak at it. I'd encourage him to keep developing his writing and exploring the different ways of expressing himself.

Message to self: Think carefully about using appropriate language in all situations. Pursue your writing! Try not to B&%$#Y swear so much under your breath !! Let go of the little things that sometimes bug you.

Humanities:

Bernard has shown that he can get easily annoyed with other pedestrians in the street when it gets busy. He has acknowledged this and is working on changing his attitude to being a more patient and reasonable fellow pedestrian. He is learning to accept what other people do is not really intentional, and that he probably bugs other pedestrians too !!

Message to self: Just be patient when out walking and see yourself as another pedestrian. Make the choice to not let these little things bug you.

       

                                                   "Your report is done Bernard !!"

Well Readers,,

That was certainly a lesson in humility !!

I don't know how many times I drafted a response, then got rid of it as it was way too personal to share. But it served the purpose of really making me think back over the past few days and identify the things that I'd like to change, and the things I'd like to keep working on.

Try it yourself, you'll be amazed at how therapeutic it can be. You may not want to write it down like I did, but I find it gives me greater clarity.

And it doesn't need to be like a school report either.

I'm just suggesting that you take some time to reflect back over your day and identify the highlights and learn ways to keep these happening. Also to recognise parts of your day that you'd rather have again so that you could make them better.

It's not that hard, I'm sure you'll agree once you try it.

Until my next post...

Cheers 😁